The return of the Tupinambá cloak to Brazil in 2024 marked one of the year’s most significant
cultural events. Crafted in the mid-17th century and long housed at the National Museum of
Denmark, the cloak embodies the diplomatic strategies of Indigenous peoples in northeastern
Brazil, who used such objects to establish alliances with Europeans. Its repatriation now resonates
with struggles for land demarcation, debates over ethnic identity, and broader discussions on the
role of Indigeneity in shaping Brazil. This talk examines the cloak’s return and the questions it
raises about Indigenous identity, cultural repatriation, and historical memory.
Short-bio:
Elisa Frühauf Garcia is a professor of history at the Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF). She
has held research positions at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) and the Spanish
National Research Council (CSIC) in Madrid. Professor Fuhauf Garcia is a CNPq Research
Productivity Fellow and Faperj Scientist. Her first of many publications was, As diversas formas de
ser índio : políticas indígenas e políticas indigenistas no extremo sul da América portuguesa. It
received the Prêmio Arquivo Nacional de Pesquisa. The book was published by the Arquivo
Nacional itself. Other institutions that supported her work include the Fundación Carolina, the
Newberry Library, and the Max Planck Institute for Legal History. Additionally, she has been a
visiting professor at the State University of Feira de Santana in Bahia, funded by Capes. An expert
on the indigenous peoples of Brazil, her current research focuses on the relationships between
Native women and European men in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. By adopting
a long-term perspective, her work bridges history, cultural heritage, and the diverse ways
the early colonial past is interpreted and utilized.